HHV-6 and the Brain
"HHV-6 is probably the most neurotropic virus known. Neuroinvasion has been documented in infants with primary infection, in focal encephalitis, in children and adults with AIDS, in recipients of bone marrow transplants, as well as in immunologically competent children and adults. Challoner et al. (78) reported viral DNA sequences in approximately two thirds of brain specimens and viral antigen expression in a number of cell types (e.g., astrocytes, macrophages, epithelial cells, endothelial cells of blood vessels) at very similar frequencies in specimens from healthy persons and multiple sclerosis patients. Astrocytes were confirmed as a susceptible cell population, although in a subsequent study only samples from AIDS patients were positive (79)" http://www.cdc.gov/Ncidod/eid/vol5no3/campadelli.htm
Infection with an Endemic Human Herpesvirus Disrupts Critical Glial Precursor Cell Properties
The Journal of Neuroscience, May 19, 2004, 24(20):4875-4883;
Cortical liquefaction in severe human herpesvirus 6 encephalopathy
{Takanashi et al. Neurology.2006; 66: 452-453}(http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/long/66/3/452)